Reversed needle plate for feeding the sliver in combing machines



March 31, 1931. c S'CHLElFER 1,799,066

REVERSED NEEDLE PLATE FOR FEEDING THE SLIVER IN COMBING MACHINES FiledSept. 16, 1929 Patented Mar. 31, 1931 Mire CARLO SCHLEIFEB, F NOVARA,TTALY REVERSED NEEDLE PLATE FOR FEEDING THE SLIVER IN COMBTNG MACHINESApplication filed September 16,1929, Serial No. 392,958, and in GermanySeptember 29, 1928.

The present invention relates to combing machines for textile fibres ofthe-'Schleifer type (United States Patents Nos. 1,408,332, and1,425,059) comprising two or more drums, intermittently rotated,provided at their periphery with grippers capable of being opened orclosed as desired in order to seize and retain or to release, the tuftsof fibre to be combed, which, being transw 1 1 1U ferred to tne grippersof the successive drums,

are combed by rotary combing cylinders and are'then passed over, by thegrippers of the last drum, to a drawing off device.

It is known that inmachines of this type the feeding of the sliver offibres to be combed is operatedby means ofa feed table having needles incombination with fixed rectilinear combs, independent of'the said feedtable, serving to delimit the detachingzone between 2 the sliver offibres andthe tuft seized by the grippers. This detaching of the tuft ismainly operated as a result of the'recoil of thefeed table, mountedon acarriage having a reciprocating movement, and'recoiling at the time ofthe intermittent rotation of the drum.,, H V

Thisfeeding device has the serious disadvantage of requiring a movementof recoil of the whole of the feed table which is con- I i 3 siderablygreater than that which would be required for the simple feeding of thesliver. This ample alternating movement,'as a result of the relativelygreat inertia of the mass of the food table, greatlylimits the speed ofthe 3 machine and consequently the production of the machine itself.Another disadvantage consists in that with the needles of the feedtable, directed as usual downwardly, at the time of the movement of thegrippers which i 40 also takes place in downward directionthe thusproducing a drawing that results in a deformation in the uniformity ofthe sliver.

The present invention relates to a feeding device for the combs of theSchleifer type which overcomes the above mentioned disad- This improvedfeeding device is characterized by the fact that the needles of the combof the feed table are arranged in a direction opposite to the movementof the gripper, that is to say from below upwards if, as is usually thecase, the movement of the gripper is from the top downwards. With thisarrangement,

machines and delimits the detaching zone between the sliver and thetuft. v

. The detaching of the tuft isthus obtained l entirely by the rotarymovement of the grippers relatively to the feed table without theintervention of the recoiling movement of the latter; the recoil of thistable may thus. be

limited to the smallest necessary for the feeding. Consequently, onaccount of the improved arrangement, thespeed may be increased andconsequently theoutput of the machine, while the fixed comb and all themechanism relating thereto is dispensed with.

A constructional form of the invention is illustrated diagrammaticallyand merely by way of example in the accompanying drawings, in whichFigures 1 and 2 show in longitudinal section and in two definite workingpositions the reversed needle plate asapplied to a combing machine ofthe Schleifertype.

Considering Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawing,

1 isthe firstfdrum of a combing machine of the Schleifer type whichmoves the grippers consisting of'jaws 2 and 8 in a complete C circle. I

One of the jaws is fixed and theother movable,-and they serve forseizing the tuft of fibres This drumis freely rotatable upon its shaft 4and revolves intermittently in the direction indicated by the arrow. It.executes; at times a rotation through anangle which is "equal to thedistance between two grippers.

A feed table which isdenoted in y 50 es. its entirety by A, isadjusted'in a radial plane lw passing through the axis of the drum andthrough the gripper, which has come to a standstill in the chargingposition I. The said feed table contains the ordinary rake with doublewall 5 and 6 in the form of a duct which serves for the passage of thesliver a of fibres to be combed, the sliver being supplied by feedcylinders 7 and 7 which receive a stepwise rotation. It also containsthe usual fiat comb 8 which is equipped with several rows of needles 9which are intended for engaging in the moving sliver a through suitablerows of slots, which are provided in the usual way in the double wall ofthe rake.

According to the present invention the comb 8, instead of being arrangedabove the rake as hitherto constructed, is arranged underneath the rakeand its needles therefore engage in the aforementioned sliver a bypenetrating into the latter in an upward direction from below.Furthermore the upper wall 6 of the rake or the cover of the duct ismade readily removable, for instance by resting in bearings 5 by meansof suitable trunnions, these bearings being open at the top andextending upwards from the lateral margins 5 of the lower wall 5 of therake. On account of this arrangement the said cover 6 can easily beremoved or even simply rocked upwards, as shown in dotted lines in Fig.1, so that the duct of the rake is entirely freed, either to facilitatethe introduction of the sliver a or for purposes of inspection orcleaning. All this is not possible in the case of ordinary needle platesexcept after removing the comb located above- As usual the rake has areciprocating longitudinal movement jointly with the comb 8 and thelatter also'receives a forward and backward movement normal to the rake,and is therefore guided, by means of its two pins, 8 for instance, insuitable sleeves 5 which are fixedly arranged on the lateral margins 5of the lower wall 5 of the rake. The movements of the rake and of thecomb may be obtained by means of any convenient known devices, forinstance as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings, where the rakeis connected at one of its ends with a two-armed lever 10.

This lever is rockable about a fixed fulcrum'll and the comb isconnected with a bell crank lever 12 rockable about a second fixedfulcrum 14, with the interposition of a link 13. The free ends of therocking lever and of the bell crank lever, which are provided with therollers 10 and 12, are supported under the action of resilient pull-backdevices 10 and 12 against eccentric sheaves 10" and 12" which aremounted fast'upon a revolving control shaft 15.

The method of working is as follows: When an open gripper 2, 3 arrivesat the charging. point I (F ig. 1) the end of the sliver a is introducedinto it, for instance in the known manner by means of a rapidly swingingintroducer which is not shown, whereupon the gripper closes. Then inconsequence of the rotation of the eccentric sheaves 10" and 12 the comb8, 9 first moves downwards and then the whole arrangement of the needleplate moves back into the position shown in Fig. 2. In this way iseffected the feeding operation of the sliver through a distance whichcorresponds to the backwards movement of the needle plate. Thereupon thecomb 8, 9 moves upwards again and holds the sliver fast, while the drumof the combing machine revolves and the detaching of the fibre tuft athen proceeds. The detaching zone is in this case determined by thefront rectilinear row of needles 9 of the comb of the needle plate whichhere acts in a manner which is known in the case of the top comb of thecombing machines of the Schleifer type.

The employment of the reversed needle plate described above in combingmachines of the Schleifer type enables a secure holding of the sliver ato be obtained during the delivery of the tuft. The pull that occursproduces its effect in the case of this detachment in a downwarddirection from the roots of the needles and therefore tends to pull thefibres always more between the needles of the comb, whereas it wouldtend to pull them out of the latter if the needles were reversed in theusual manner, that is, directed in the opposite direction.

I claim:

1. A device for feeding the sliver in combing machines of the Schleifertype with a feed table having needles, characterized by the feature thatthe needles of the comb are directed so as to penetrate from belowupwards into the sliver in a direction opposite to the detachingmovement of the grippers, and at the time of gripping the needles areforced to penetrate more deeply into the sliver, the first and frontseries of needles operating as a fixed comb serving to delimit thedetaching zone between the tuft and sliver,

the detaching of the tuft being obtained sole CARLO SCHLEIFER.

